450 
REVIEW.—CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 
a great extent fail for want of such lessons reaching, or too feebly 
sounding in the ears of those known to be, in all that respects 
humanity to the lower animals, the greatest delinquents: hence 
the necessity of carrying out divine laws by the institution of 
human ones. Where the exhortations and admonitions of the 
clergyman fail to persuade, or impress, or restrain, the magistrate 
steps in armed with the irresistible power of the law; and Eng¬ 
lishmen may boast that, however much cruelty may, under the 
names of “ sport” or “ diversion,” have been practised upon man’s 
too willing slaves, yet has legislative enactment done, and still is 
doing, all in its power to repress it, by the imposition of pains and 
penalties upon its perpetrators. How far the subject is fit and 
proper for the pulpit Mr. Pettitt will best inform us:— 
“ There is no duty of man, and there are no circumstances capa¬ 
ble of furnishing him with the opportunity of exhibiting Christian 
principles and virtues in opposition to the wickedness that springs 
from our fallen nature, which may not be advantageously discuss¬ 
ed by the Minister of Christ. And it is the glory of the Gospel that, 
while it reveals to man doctrines so sublime and facts so astound¬ 
ing that even angels regard them with admiration, it descends also 
to the daily business of human life, directs us in the discharge of 
our meanest duties, and aims at sanctifying every action and every 
feeling to the service and the glory of God. Not unfrequently, too, 
it pleases God to reach the hearts and consciences of careless and 
ungodly men, by subjects in themselves of inferior importance, 
such as that before us, when more sublime and momentous subjects 
have failed to produce their due effect.” 
Every relation between man and the animal creation impresses 
us with the divine injunction, that man was created “lord and 
master of the brute species,” and that he, as a ruling agent, is re¬ 
sponsible for the power delegated to him. Divine precept here, as 
in so many other obvious instances, teaches no more than Nature 
on every side responds to. The power, tacitly acknowledged by the 
Truth, is openly exercised by man; and if man exercises it in a 
tyrannous or cruel manner, not only is such practice expressly con¬ 
trary to the example set him, and the lessons taught him by his 
Divine Master, but it is such as Nature herself rebels against; 
and so is exceeding apt to defeat its own purpose. All experience 
teaches that a great deal more is to be accomplished with animals 
by fond than by harsh usage—that nature is often to be mollified 
